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I have posted an informal guide for victims of police misconduct, courtesy of the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP), on the “Practice Areas” page of my law practice website.

The story of Adam Stoddard, the sheriff’s deputy in Arizona who lifted a document in open court from the files of a defense attorney is by now well-known, particularly among the legal community and especially the criminal defense bar. If you haven’t seen the video of the officer’s despicable conduct, I invite you to do so here:

The latest on this is that the judge in whose courtroom Stoddard worked ordered him to jail for contempt of court after Stoddard refused to apologize to the attorney for stealing the document from her case file. Stoddard was recently released from custody and praised by his boss, the infamous Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. For what, I’m not entirely sure.

The most disturbing thing about Stoddard’s conduct is the sense of entitlement and arrogance he exhibited throughout the incident, continuing through the hearing. That is, it doesn’t seem like Stoddard thought he did anything wrong at all. That it was his duty to pry into the defense attorney’s files because, well, she’s a defense attorney, and her clients are the scum of the earth.

I was helping out on a criminal matter that resulted in a good outcome for the client. What started as a multi-count indictment with gun and drug possession charges and a fairly lengthy sentence, ended in the client’s release for time served. The attorney I was working with even managed to reinstate his probation even though the client had been “revoked” before the criminal case came about. This outcome was largely the product of shoddy police work and the prosecutor, to his credit, knew it; hence, the reduced charges. Client ended up pleading guilty to misdemeanor obstruction.

To the general public this result may seem like familiar examples of the criminal justice system run amok and criminal defense attorneys up to their usual tricks . Even the judge, who accepted the plea but had almost no knowledge of how the police trampled on the client’s constitutional rights in their haste to rid society of another criminal element, was taken aback by the deal the client received from the prosecutor. To hear the incident recounted during the plea proceedings, one would be hard pressed to think otherwise: guns and drug-like substances were recovered, client’s friend fleeing the scene, client slamming the door on the police and then attempting to flee himself. But what was not disclosed and what really turned the case around was how the police violated god knows how many constitutional and statutory provisions against unreasonable searches and seizures when they searched the apartment client was at without a valid warrant, and the one they eventually did get was just as good as no warrant at all when they failed to comply with appropriate procedures.

The unfortunate thing is that the public will, for the most part, never learn of what the police did and, for that matter, didn’t do, in the client’s case. The fortunate thing though is that the client had attorneys who did find out what happened (not always a given) and raised hell with the prosecutor about it as was their duty under the Constitution.

Jaqueline Fegan, a traffic ticketing supervisor, recently won a $1.553 million jury verdict against the City of Chicago in a rather unusual civil rights suit. Fegan alleged that police had falsely arrested and battered her after she refused to rescind a parking ticket that a subordinate of Fegan’s had issued to an officer’s private car. The Chicao Sun-Time has the story here, the Tribune, here.

Apparently a heated argument ensued when Fegan refused to comply with the officer’s demand that the traffic ticket be “non-suited” and the officers ultimately arrested Fegan for what they claimed was a jaywalking offense. In the process, Fegan claims they injured her wrist and shoulder and also conspired to cover up the episode by crafting a story that Fegan was the one who was throwing her clout around and had fought back against and injured the officers.

One wonders why the City took the case to trial rather than settle. Perhaps the City attorneys thought they had the moral highground here: police officer ticketed while on official duty? If so, they were sorely mistaken. I would argue that arresting a colleague, especially for the dubious crime of “jaywalking,” after a heated argument about rescinding a traffic ticket, is indefensible before most juries. It’s unclear from news reports how the judgment was apportioned, i.e., compensatory or punitive damages, but I imagine a large chunk of it was directed at punishing the rather outlandish actions of the officers.

If you’re interested in learning more about the case, the complaint can be downloaded here.

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Things have been a bit hectic around here but I hope to continue posting regularly.

Here’s what you may have missed in my absence though:

A federal judge in the Northern District of Georgia sentenced Joshua David Lowe, an ex-jail sergeant at the Polk County Jail, to 21 months in prison for beating an inmate who was strapped to a restraining chair. A fellow jailer and witness to the beating said that the inmate was “spewing blood” and that there was “blood everywhere.” Lowe pleaded guilty, which, perhaps, explains the unusually lenient sentence. And let’s not forget that Lowe is a law enforcement officer, after all, who is nothing but well-intentioned. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorneys Office, one of several that has been brought by the feds in recent moths (see here and here). Of course, police brutality against inmates, whether it’s of the violent or non-violent variety, are common, and one wonders why the feds don’t pursue more of these cases. Because what happens at the county jail stays in the county jail. Ultimately, it is up to the better officers, those with a conscience and a heart who see their colleagues go to town on an inmate, to break this cycle of secrecy and violence.

Texas continues to make its mark as the capitol of injustice in criminal and death penalty prosecutions. The 2005 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham who was convicted of setting fire to his home and killing his three children has returned to the media spotlight after Texas Governor Rick Perry took some swipes (some would say unwarranted) at Willingham, calling him a “monster” and a “bad man.” This came after Perry pulled some strings last minute to change the composition of an official forensic science commission that was about to issue a report on whether Willingham really did commit arson and murder his three kids. Grits for Breakfast has the story here. Texas injustice also made news with the release of Richard Miles, who was serving 15 years in prison for shooting two individuals, one of whom died. The release came after Centurion Ministries, a prisoner advocacy group, uncovered police files that show that someone else – not Miles – had actually confessed to the shooting. Evidence that was withheld by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office headed by Craig Watkins.

Scott Greenfield over at Simple Justice picked up a story on Anthony Arambula who was shot in the back 6 times by the police who mistook him for a robber. Of course, the cover up, as they say, is often worse than the crime. And here, the police apparently tried everything short of bribing witnesses to cover up their tracks. The incident took place in Maricopa County which also happens to be playground of infamous Sherrif Joe Arpaio.

According to the report of the incident by Courthouse News Service:

A homeowner says a Phoenix police officer shot him six times in the back during a 911 home-invasion call, and the 911 tape recorded the officer’s partner saying, “That’s all right. Don’t worry about it. I got your back. … We clear?” The family says the officers were not aware that the 911 call was still recording as they spoke about covering up the shooting.

In their complaint in Maricopa County Court, Anthony and Lesley Arambula say an armed intruder “crashed through the front window” of their home on Sept. 17, 2008 and ran into one of their son’s bedrooms.

Anthony, worried about his son who was still in his bedroom, says he “held the intruder calmly at gunpoint” and called 911.

Phoenix Police officers already in the neighborhood heard the crash of the Arambulas’ window. When they approached the house, Lesley says, she told Sgt. Sean Coutts that her husband was inside holding the intruder at gunpoint. Lesley says Coutts failed to pass on that information to the two other officers.

Inside the house, the Arambulas say, Officer Brian Lilly shot Anthony six times in the back while he was still on the phone with the 911 operator – twice when he was on the ground. The officers ran into the bedroom after Anthony told them, “You just killed … you just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there.”

The entire Courthouse News Service article can be found here, Steve Greenfield’s take, here.